Venezuela

Boys, girls and adolescents in the country are “the most weak and vulnerable victims of the forced displacement among the overall population displaced by the country’s armed conflict” (Corte, 2008-b). As a result...

On Wednesday 13th July, non-governmental organizations such as the Venezuelan Program of Education-Action in Human Rights (VPEAHR), Laboratory of Peace (LP), Center of Justice and Peace (CJP), Civil Human Rights (CHR), Public Space (PS) and the Center of Human Rights of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (CHR-ABCU) went to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court with the goal of introducing an action for partial annulment of unconstitutionality along with an action for injunctive relief against articles 35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 52, 76, 82, 83, 85, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 and 105 of the Law of Obligatory Military Registration and Enlistment for the Integral Defense of the Nation, published in the Official Gazette Number 40.440, dated 25th June, 2014, which establishes obligatory of enrollment in Military Registration for all natural and legal persons.

In 1998 lieutenant colonel Hugo Chávez won the presidency of Venezuela, after staging a coup d’etat in 1992. For the first time in Venezuela’s democratic period (which began in 1958), a member of the Armed Forces was elected head of state. One of the consequences was that a new phase of progressive militarisation had begun in the country, initiated with a constitutional reform in 1999, which granted members of the Armed Forces the right to vote, in addition to other political rights, such as the right to be elected to public office in a public vote. Today, soldiers occupy different offices, such as ministers, governors, and mayors. Although there is a coalition of political parties that supports president Chávez, the Gran Polo Patriótico, there is a lot of evidence that shows that, in fact, the Armed Forces are Hugo Chávez's political organisation of trust to exercise political power.

The image of masculinity...the model men that go to war, that compete. - Jorge Veléz, Colombia

The Ministry of Women, for example, was created in 2006 and since then one of the main goals that the Minister for Women has proposed is to provide two million female members to the militia. She has already set in motion a first stage where she promised 150,000... - Rafael Uzcategui, Venezuela

We do also have women in the military, but comparatively the ratio is low. – Samuel Koduh, Ghana

They are constantly selling the idea that Venezuela is going to be invaded by the United States and in the face of this external threat...there is a permanent feeling of being on the verge of war or armed conflict...They always say that the United State wants Venezuela’s oil, however our president Chávez negotiated with transnational energy companies for 30 to 40 years. This means that that argument is invalid... - Rafael Uzcategui, Venezuela

If ideology shapes our fantasies as Zizek suggests, then Call of Duty: Ghosts is imperialism distilled.

“How do we experience ourselves ideologically? What do we find worth fighting for? What's the meaning of our life?”

This is how Slovenian philosopher Slajoj Zizek launched a response to the question of why he finds cinema such a useful tool for analysing modern capitalist ideology during a recent interview with Vice.

Answering his own questions, he continued, “You have to look at Hollywood, where you get it [ideology] in pure, distilled form.”

The interview was about Zizek's latest film, The Pervert's Guide to Ideology. In the film, Zizek essentially argues that even in our dreams and fantasies, we cannot escape the dominant ideologies of our time.

Languages

Sowing Seeds

Through articles, images, survey data and interviews, Sowing Seeds: The Militarisation of Youth and How to Counter It documents the seeds of war that are planted in the minds of young people in many different countries. However, it also explores the seeds of resistance to this militarisation that are being sown resiliently and creatively by numerous people. READ MORE